The Dry Sluice manway is one of the best known off trail hikes in the park. The notoriety stems from its inclusion in the old Sierra Club blue book, and is fueled by a continued string of trip reports; some reporting epic ascents and others describing near disasters. The manway is not hard by the rigorous standards of the serious off trail hikers, but it is an important test piece for off trail ability.
The
manway connects the south end of the Porters Creek Trail at Campsite 31 to the
state line crest and Appalachian Trail at Dry Sluice Gap. The route is also
called the Porters Creek manway. The old timers called it their road to market.
The route was an important transportation link across the mountains in the
pre-park days.
Mark
and I had been interested in the Dry Sluice manway, and had been training hard
for the Barkley Marathons. Mark’s buddy Brian had done 99% of the manway the year before, but had been
stopped by snow near the top. Together we thought we could finish an out and
back trip in the short daylight of March. My caution about trying the manway
led to the detailed route notes below.
Ready for the manway.
We
left the trailhead at 8 AM, reached the campsite at 9:30 and took a 15 minute break. The manway started
just past the post marking the campsite. We went left and south at the start. A
second split to the left is another old manway up Porters Mountain. Brian had
gone a good way up Porters Mountain on his first trip, before realizing that he
should not be climbing from the start. Many others had strayed further up the
mountain, including one backpacker who ended up being airlifted off Porters
Mountain, and some running friends of mine who had barely made it to the AT by
nightfall. link
The
correct manway turns right down towards the creek. The beginning had good
footing and was not overgrown, with just a few areas of rhodo and dog hobble.
The whole route had scattered cairns, and there was evidence of scattered
clipping and some older trail maintenance with sawed through logs.
After
about four fords we reached the obvious confluence with Lester Prong, the last
named tributary of Porters Creek. The fords had been tricky, but we all got
through with dry feet. We saw no evidence of a manway going up Lester Prong.
The fords above the confluence were easy, and the trail stayed close to the
creek bottom.
The Mother Cairn.
The
stream went underground just past BM 3967’ (on the 1931 map where an unnamed
branch enters from the east). The trail essentially enters the creek here. The
next landmark is an old 4’ high cairn which we nicknamed the Mother Cairn. Just
beyond, the creek reappears. It seems there is so much big rock that has
sloughed off onto Porters Creek that in low water there isn’t enough flow to
supply groundwater and have surface water left over.
Stuck in the blowdowns.
The
main valley becomes less well defined as the grade steepens. A second tricky
turn occurs where the cairns suddenly traverse left through rhodo from one
gully to another. Hikers who miss this turn typically come out directly at the
park’s Charlies Bunion overlook after a difficult, dangerous, and exposed
climb. This “new” gully is suspected to be the original route of the manway,
which was blocked by a landslide in historic times. The landslide required a
bypass route, which is the current manway route from the traverse back to the
main creek.
Approaching Dry Sluice Gap.
In
the new gully you quickly hit a 50-100’ high set of steep, narrow, and wet rock
steps. Luckily these tiny footholds are solid. Above the steps the manway
begins to switchback up steeply. Finally, a bit of footway is discernable just
before you reach Dry Sluice Gap at its west end, about 100’ west of the
junction of the AT and Dry Sluice Gap Trails.
We were really pleased with completing the round trip. The navigation had been straight forward with all the info we had before the start, but we also felt that in those conditions it would have been possible to simply follow the cairns.
5-13-07,
Wooly Tops via Dry Sluice Gap and Kalanu Prong
13
miles, SMHC Trip led by Dick Kettelle and Alan Householder
As often happened with off trail hiking in the Smokies, a route that once was a major challenge soon became the path to a newer challenge. In this era, one of the tougher SMHC trips for the year would be the one led in spring by Dick and Alan. For 2007 they chose to go up the Dry Sluice Gap Manway, over on the AT to Laurel Top , and then descend back to Greenbrier via Wooly Tops and Kalanu Prong. This trip deserves its own blog write up.
8-24-08, Smokies, Dry Sluice Manway #2
After
my two trips up Dry Sluice Jean became interested in going herself, especially
as she realized it was within her ability range considering all the off trail
trips we had been doing. We were able to plan this trip at the end of a three
week dry spell. The overall trip took 9 ½ hours, 9AM to 6:30, and came in at near the limit of Jean’s
endurance. Claudia and Ed joined in. I’m sure Ed had done the manway before,
and he would go on to hike it many times over the next few years.
We
made the classic mistake of briefly starting up the Porters Mountain manway
from CS 31, and needed to bushwhack back down to the Dry Sluice.
At the Mother Cairn.
With
midsummer growth, the start of Dry Sluice Gap manway was more overgrown than we
expected, with rhodo and blackberry thickets up to the Lester Prong junction.
We had some trouble following the manway, mostly because the heavy growth
obscured the cairns. One narrow section of creek was especially thick, and we
needed to stop there for some map work.
Preparing for the final climb.
I
noted that the toe of the landslide was just below the mother cairn. The
climbing really starts at the mother cairn, heading up a steep rocky drainage.
We didn’t see any cairns marking the traverse over to the left gully, but I
rebuilt two as we went by. 
Jean approaching the crest.
Neither
Jean nor Claudia had any trouble on the steep wet rock face. We topped out
about 1:30, and then went to the “real” Charlies Bunion (as opposed to the
“tourist” bunion) to enjoy some views.
Success!
The
hike back down was nearly as hard as the hike up, but we had no trips or
stumbles. We saw some fresh bear scat, but no sign of recent hiker activity. We
ran low on water, and I had to treat some of the creek water with an iodine
tablet. Ed, Claudia, and I traded lead on the navigating.
Looking from the "real' bunion to the "tourist" bunion.
8-25-12,
Dry Sluice to LeConte Run
On this trip I helped my running friends purge the memories of their climb up Porters Mountain by leading them up the Dry Sluice manway. We made a 21.3 mile loop over the top of Mt. LeConte on a trip that is described here: link
4-14-18,
Rocky Crag and the Dry Sluice Gap Manway
On
this SMHC trip Mark, Mike, Mike, and I split off the group after ascending the
Rocky Crag to descend the Dry Sluice manway on a trip that is described here: Rocky Crag Link
